You can use Effective C++ in two ways: first, if there's a chapter about
some C++ feature, you should think hard about whether or not you really need to
use that feature. Second, if you decide you do need to use it, you should read
and understand the chapter so you can avoid all the little traps that are
waiting for you.

If you can't borrow a copy of More Effective C++, you should wait until
the second edition comes out before you buy one.

You know how you go to the doctor for a cough or an itch - nothing serious -
and the doctor gives you a prescription for three days worth of pills or syrup
or something? And you go to the druggist and get the prescription filled, and
you take it home and you open it up? And all folded up in the package is a
really big sheet of paper covered with really small print describing all the
bad things that can happen to you if take the medicine improperly - like how
your fingers fall off if you take it on an empty stomach, or like how your
lungs will burst into flames if you take the medicine and then go to sleep too
soon afterwards? You know that sheet? This book is to C++ what that sheet is
to your medicine.